


Five's first displacement

by LittleRit



Series: The Time Travellers Life [1]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - The Time Traveler's Wife Fusion, Feels, Gen, Number Five | The Boy-centric, Time Travel, Young Number Five | The Boy, involuntary time travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-16
Updated: 2020-09-16
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:28:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26500642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleRit/pseuds/LittleRit
Summary: The yellow walls of the room he is in seem familiar, but he’s not sure why. His fingers are clenched in the same dark blue bedsheets he has on his own bed, but this is not his room. The only light in the room comes from the warm golden glow from the wall above the bed. Peering closer Five can see what appears to be a string of miniature lights stuck to the wall. Next to his feet are a pair of black boots with the laces hastily stuffed inside, the polished leather gleaming where it catches the light. Whoever’s room this is must be a lot older than him, Five reasons, because the shoes are nearly twice the size of his own feet.Or: The prologue to a story where Five suffers from Chrono-Impairment, causing him to involuntarily time travel. He first travels when he is five years old.(no knowledge of time travellers wife necessary)
Series: The Time Travellers Life [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1926658
Comments: 47
Kudos: 171





	Five's first displacement

**Author's Note:**

> This is the prologue to the main story "The Time Traveller's Life", and shows Five's first (time) jump. The main story is up and is part 2 of this series, but you can also enjoy this as a standalone one shot. There shouldn't be any need to be familiar with The Time Travellers Wife to follow and hopefully enjoy this fic.

“Ouch!”

Five cries, eyes watering as a sharp pain shooting up his shins from tripping over the chair pulled away from the desk. He throws his arms out to catch himself on the bed and takes a moment to catch his breath. He isn’t sure what just happened or how he got here, in fact, he thinks he was asleep, but the pain has made sure he’s definitely awake now.

The yellow walls of the room he is in seem familiar, but he’s not sure why. His fingers are clenched in the same dark blue bedsheets he has on his own bed, but this is not his room. The only light in the room comes from the warm golden glow from the wall above the bed. Peering closer Five can see what appears to be a string of miniature lights stuck to the wall. Next to his feet are a pair of black boots with the laces hastily stuffed inside, the polished leather gleaming where it catches the light. Whoever’s room this is must be a lot older than him, Five reasons, because the shoes are nearly twice the size of his own feet.

His fingers trail along the rumpled bed cover as he steps back to the desk, rising up on to his toes to better peek at the books and worksheets left across it in messy piles. He squints at the creased book spines, reading titles such as ‘Intermediate Latin’, ‘Basic theories of time travel’ and ‘Communicating with the departed’ (although for the last he struggled to sound it out in his mind, and had no idea what it meant). The loose sheets seem to be a mixture of cramped handwriting and messy doodles.

His eye is caught by an old looking tin near the back, with dented edges and the logo obscured by scratches. He goes to grasp it, stretching his arm as far as it will go to catch the edges with his fingertips and wiggle it closer. The strange sweet-stale smell that has been hanging in the room gets stronger as he pulls the tin closer and settles back onto the flats of his feet. He is just grasping the lid with his short fingers, ready to pry it open and see what is inside, when he is startled by the door swinging open.

A person stands frozen in the doorway, hand still gripping the door handle as they stare at each other. Five thinks the taller figure might be a boy, but he’s not sure - the bright light from the hallway casts them into shadow. The sound of footsteps and voices echo down the hall and the figure jumps, stepping into the room quickly and closing the door firmly behind them, all whilst flicking the lights on at the same time.

Once the lights come on Five gets to have a good look at him (and it is a him he can see now). They are bending to fit the door stop under the door and wedge it shut from the inside. They have pale skin, and short dark hair, and their clothes remind Five of the uniform he has to wear – a crisp white shirt, shorts, knee-high socks and smart black shoes. His eyes are wide as he turns to looks at Five and get wider when he spots the tin in his hands, before he lunges towards him with a gasp.

Startled, Five drops the tin, clenching his hands into fists and blinking back to stand on top of the bed. He eyes the boy warily as he kneels, picking the tin up and quickly hiding it in one of the desk drawers before turning to look at Five.

“Five.” The stranger breathes, before his eyes drop and take in what Five himself has just realised – wherever he is, and however he got here, he is here completely naked. “Hang… hang on, I’ll get you something to wear-”

Five watches as he crosses to the chest of drawers, pulling out a clean shirt identical to the one he is already wearing. Who are they? Five thinks, he tentatively takes the offered shirt and starts to feed his arms through the sleeves. And how do they know who he is?

“You’re so young.” Five looks up from where he has started to clumsily do up the buttons, unaware he hasn’t matched them up evenly. “Jesus, is this your first jump? How old are you anyway?”

Five straightens with a frown. No this is _not_ his first jump, obviously, he started jumping over a year ago. If this person knows him then he should know that.

“The silent treatment, huh?” He huffs, and they smile for the first time, pulling the desk chair further out and sitting on it backwards. The boy seems happy to stare at him, his chin resting on the arms he has folded on the top of the backrest.

“Okay then, looks like I’ll be guessing. Which sounds fun, I like guessing games! You look about……four I think.” Before he can stop himself, Five pulls a face. He’s obviously not four years old, he’s much too tall and grown up for that. But it seems to be just the response the boy was looking for, as his face lights up with a wild grin.

“Okay, not four then. I was teasing, you look _far_ too mature to be four,” Five’s not sure what mature means, but he knows what teasing is and he’s not impressed. “I reckon you must be six!”

Five crosses his arms. “Five _and a half._ ” He admits, but the half is very important. “And this isn’t my first jump, I’ve been jumping since I was _three_. None of my siblings can do it.” He adds proudly.

“No, I bet not, that’s a pretty special power.” The boy is still grinning as he stares at him.

“How old are you then?” Five challenges.

The boy’s smile drops. “Fourteen. It’s our- _my_ birthday today.”

“Oh. Happy birthday.” Five says, finally relaxing enough to sit on the bed, the large shirt nearly to his knees when he stretches his feet out in front of him and leans back against the wall.

“Thanks. Have you been here long, or did you just get here before I came in?”

“Just got here.” He rubs the red marks on his shins, which have started to throb. “I fell over your chair.”

The boy laughs. “Sorry about that! My brother is always telling me to be tidier.” Five perks up, this boy has a brother too?

“You have a brother?”

“Several.” The boy says.

“So do I!” Five says brightly. “And two sisters. Are you the eldest?” Five is excited. He had been reading a story last week when he realised that the hero had a sister who was younger than them. A _younger_ sister! He had never realised you could have brothers and sisters who were a different age before.

“Err, no, sorry. I’m the middle child in every way.” He laughs. Five isn’t entirely sure what that means, or why it is funny, but he doesn’t care, already moving on.

“Me and my siblings are all the same age.”

“My siblings and I” The boy corrects, then blinks and snorts a laugh, seemingly at himself. Five still isn’t sure what he is finding funny.

“Where am I?” Five asks, before turning to face the window above the bed and reaching for the curtains. He pulls the curtain apart to peek out at a dark alleyway with a familiar building directly opposite-

“The Umbrella Academy.”

That can’t be right.

He turns to look at the boy, feeling wary again. “It can’t be. _I_ live at the academy, and nobody lives there apart from me and my family, and Dad, and Grace ‘n Pogo.” He lifts a finger to point at the strange boy. “I don’t recognise you.”

The boy laughs again. “You will, one day!”

Five isn’t convinced that makes sense, but he sits back down anyway. He’s just about to ask the boy’s name when he’s overtaken by a yawn so big he thinks his jaw is going to click.

“Oh, you’re tired? Of course, you’re tired. Here, why don’t you take a nap? I have to finish some Latin work anyway, so you can have the bed.” The boy leans forwards and plumps up the pillow, handing it to Five who accepts it and lies down without protest, eyes already trying to fall shut after his yawn.

The lights go out, leaving the bed and the desk lit only by the soft warm glow of the strange little lights on a string.

“Look like fireflies.” Five murmurs as he snuggles into the pillow, already drifting off.

A hand runs through his hair, and the last thing he hears is a choked, “Goodnight Five.”

* * *

When Five wakes again the next morning, he finds himself cold and lay on top of his quilt. His pale blue pyjamas are sandwiched between the quilt and the mattress cover, laid out as if he had simply jumped out of them in his sleep. He frowns and rubs his eyes to check he really is in his own room, and this is not a continuation of the dream with the strangely comforting yellow room, with the strange boy who seemed to know him.

Then he hears the morning bell and jumps up to get dressed, the dream of the mystery boy already fading swiftly from his mind as he hurries to breakfast.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you have enjoyed this! If you do please leave me a kudos or better yet a comment and let me know - I'd love to know what you think of the concept, what your favourite part is, what you are excited about, and any feedback you have :)
> 
> I'd like to thank the TUA fandom for being so supportive and encouraging with my first fic - its the reason I'm writing a second!


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